MPFNL Pride Round

Pride Round Speech 

Written and spoken by Charlie Ryan

Saturday, 22 June, 2024 | Red Hill FNC

I’d like to start by again acknowledging the Bunurong and Boon Wurrung people as the traditional custodians of the lands we meet here today. I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.

And I’d also like to take this opportunity for us to remember the life and work of the great Uncle Jack Charles who passed away not two years ago. A survivor of the Stolen Generation which led to years of prison time and an addiction to heroin. He would become a great stage and screen actor. But I think it his advocacy for our first nations people, as a mentor for those young indigenous kids stuck in the prison system and a role model for the LGBTIQA+ indigenous youth which will be his lasting legacy.

And I think we as a community can learn a lot from the importance our first nations people place on community. The protection of their youth and the preservation of their environment for not just the living, but the many generations yet to come.

And I feel perhaps right here at the Red Hill Football Netball Club, that we endeavour to do just that. As an institution for not just our children and young people, but also for all people within our community – that this club strives to provide a safe and welcoming space for everyone to congregate, free to be themselves.

For me I am proud to have been able to serve on the committee here at Red Hill for the four years leading up to the start of this year, when I made the decision to step-away to focus more of my time and energy on my own young and growing family. Noting that I still hold a sponsored position of creative director here at the club, perhaps reminiscent of a line from a certain Eagles song “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”.

In my time here I feel extremely fortunate to have been welcomed into such an incredible community. Making many great local friendships, such Daryl and Karina Holmes, Graham and Kim Sherry, Mark and Tatenda Hopkinson, Adrian and Susie Dal Lago, Lyndsay McCall and Sally Gudgeon – to name just a few.

And whilst I probably came here with some progressive views and ideas of my own, there already existed a welcoming environment to new ideas and providing a safe and welcoming place for all people – which, not to disregard the previous leaderships here at the club, but I believe has been cemented through the steadfast stewardship under our club president, Graham Sherry.

In my time with the club here, whilst there have many great moments and achievements, in particular overseeing the design and development of the rebrand here for the club. But the two things that stand-out most in my mind have been the work put in to establishing the 5 pillars at the front of our clubrooms – that now allow us as a club to fly the Australian flag, alongside our own club flag, along with the Aboriginal, Torres Strait and the Progressive Pride Flags at each one of our home games.

But in particular it was my personal involvement in spearheading the first Pride Round on the Mornington Peninsula. A suggestion I floated right here in the room just over 3 years ago at one of our many committee meetings. And that hopefully gives you an idea of why I’ve been asked as the speaker for today’s Pride Round lunch…

Now to clear the air, and make sure we’re across the most up to date acronym for today.

‘LGBTIQA+’ is an evolving acronym.

It stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning and asexual. And the plus representing the many other terms (such as non-binary and pansexual) that people use to describe their experiences of their gender, sexuality and physiological sex characteristics.

Now, could I please ask everyone here at this event to stand up.

For anyone here born after 1997, (i.e. you’re 27 years of age or younger), could I ask you to please sit down.

Of those many of us that have remained standing, we represent the group of Australian’s who were alive at a time when it was still illegal to be gay in the last remaining state of Australia to change their laws – just across the straight – at the home of the AFL’s newest team, Tasmania.

Please sit down.

Now for all you sports nuts in the room, who love a good set of stats before the big game…

In today’s post-marriage-equality-Australia, these are some of the figures our young LGBITQA+ community can look forward to:

• 53% will witness discrimination and 40% of them will personally experience it, mostly through verbal vilification – with words like Fag or Faggot, Poofter and Cocksucker.

• 76% of our young gay men, however, will witness homophobia, and 63% of them will personally experience it.

• 44% of LGBTIQA+ young people living in rural areas can expect to experience discrimination compared to 35% in metro areas. Where Red Hill and our surrounds lies in that statistic, I don’t know.

• And Up to 80% of same-sex attracted and gender questioning young Australians can expect to experience public insult, 20% explicit threats and 18% physical abuse and 26% ‘other’ forms of homophobia (with 80% of this abuse to occur at school).

• LGBITQA+ people have the highest rates of suicidality of any population in Australia. Being 4-5 times more likely to suicide than their heterosexual counterparts.

• With up to 50% of trans people having actually attempted suicide at least once in their lives.

• With the elevated risk of mental ill-health and suicidality being due to discrimination and exclusion.

Before coming here today, I spoke with a fellow heterosexual and ally to the LGBTIQA+ community, Angie Greene – the CEO of Stand Up Events – A Not-for-profit organisation dedicated to fighting sexual and gender discrimination in sport. Angie herself comes from a great Australian sporting family. Her eldest brother, Steven and, her father, Russell, both having played for Hawthorn Football Club (with Russell inducted in the Hawks Hall of Fame) and her grandfather, the great Frank Sedgman, who won 22 Tennis Grand Slams. And we were extremely lucky and honoured to have had Angie speak alongside her father Russell at our first Pride Round – at the President’s lunch right here only a short couple of years ago.

And I asked Angie how we’re doing. Are the stats getting better? Are the initiatives working?

And her answer, like usual, was quite frank.

Now, more than ever, does our LGBTIQA+ community need the support of the wider community.

Talking footy alone, in the AFL / VFL there has never been an openly queer male player.

To jog some of your memories, the brother of our number one ticket holder here at the club, the former AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan speaking at a leadership lunch in April of last year, was quoted as saying

“I am comfortable there are gay male players and I am very comfortable [saying that] they are known to their teammates…

What they are choosing is to not be the first person… Frankly I can understand why they would choose not to have to carry that burden around forever.”

“And I don’t think they need to – come out” he went on to say.

But I would agree with Angie, who went on to say that Gillon as the leader of the AFL at the time missed a great opportunity to create a safe and inclusive environment and could have expressed something more under the lines of ‘if or when a player/players decide to come out – on their own terms – that they are going to have the full backing and support of everyone in the AFL. That this game is and should be for everyone.

With research suggesting that nearly 50% of gay and bisexual lads intentionally exclude themselves from male team dominated sports at a young age because of this type of language and behaviour, and because of environments like this that don’t make them feel safe or included.

And this type of language happens in EVERY level of Aussie Rules Football. It’s heard from the Under 9’s in the junior community clubs through to the elite AFL clubs.

Just this year alone we have seen North Melbourne’s coach Alistair Clarkson calling a couple of players “Cock Suckers”.

And Port Adelaide player, Jeremy Finlayson, and  Gold Coast Suns player Wil Powell, both flinging the slur of Faggot on the field. Only within weeks of each other. And both of whom were slapped with 5 week bans.

And every time something like this happens on the public platform. Hate crimes rise.

Every time one of those players that might just don some of the footy cards I just bought my 8 year old son, says something like faggot or poofter, it sets a precedence that maybe it’s still ok to get away with it.

Sport (no matter what level) is either someone’s place of community and passion or someone’s place of work and no one should be made to feel uncomfortable, feel as if they have to hide who they are or be made to feel that perhaps it’s easier to simply exclude themselves from that environment all together.

And in a recent study by Swinburne University with support from Vic Health released earlier this year, found that LGBTIQA+ participation rates in sport has been in a steady decline. Perhaps re-emphasising the need to ensure we have safe and inclusive sporting clubs and spaces, for all people – regardless of how they identify.

Like this club here in Red Hill, but also the Frankston Bombers and Bonbeach here with us today. But also to the Frankston YCW, Edi-Asp and Pines Football Netball Clubs, who have all showed up to support the Pride Round here at Red Hill these past three years.

And we all have a responsibility to make spaces like this possible for not just our young people, but all members of our community.

Don’t say it.
Call it out.
Visibly show your support.
Learn.
And Be respectful.

But if you think for a second that a progressive and open club and community such as ours here at Red Hill has managed to successfully cleanse itself of homophobia – you simply need to read some of the comments made on our Pride related posts on our Instagram and Facebook pages. Such as a “Sellouts” comment by Adam, or the various homophobic images and emoji’s posted by Peter.

Yes, I’m calling them out.

So I would simply ask all of you here today, when you get home tonight – hopefully from a couple of historic Red Hill wins – to shoot off an email or write a letter addressed to the MPFNL and get them to lift their game. And make the Pride Round a fully endorsed MPFNL initiative with all teams raising the Rainbow Progress Pride Flag on and off their fields.

And let’s make every MPFNL club a safe and inclusive one. And help us beat those bloody stats in support of our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual – Plus – community.

I’d like to this moment to acknowledge and thank the Red Hill Football Netball Club, to Graham Sherry and the committee for their invitation for me to speak here today.

And I’d also like to thank Ben Freeman and his company, Stop The Rot, with who’s incredible generosity and support these past few years, has been instrumental in this club’s initiation and continuation of the Pride Round. Which has still only ever been hosted here on these grounds in Red Hill – as part of the Mornington Peninsula Football Netball League.

Community. It is a beautiful thing. But it is only as strong as we make it.

And I think for many of us that have chosen to make this part of the world our home, we in turn accept our responsibility to be a part of this community. And now more than ever, in times of what seems like ongoing crises, we all must take up an active role within it. And it’s ok to put some sponsorship and money into the community, but it’s your time and energy that is most precious to our community organisations – that help make this place what it is.

So I ask everyone in this room to have a think about whether they’ve got a bit of extra time and energy they can give to the community. You could think about joining the committee here, or down at Frankston or Bonbeach. Or just putting your hand up to volunteer on Game Days. Or perhaps you could join the CFA and help protect our homes and environment. Or come down and do a shift at the Blue Moon Artist Collective, and help support our local artists.

There’s something for everyone.

Community. It is a beautiful thing. But it is only as strong, and safe, and welcoming as we make it.

Thank you.